Broomfield does its part to protect honey beehives

Two being moved before large cottonwood tree cut down

When the subject of the move is not one, but two honey beehives -- potentially home to as many as 80,000 bees each in the peak of summer -- it grows a bit harder and the list of needed equipment grows to include a crane and a trailer.

Broomfield forester Tom Wells found that out last week as a contractor set out to cut down two dying cottonwood trees in a greenbelt area in the Westlake neighborhood.

The trees, an estimated 70 to 100 years old, have been dying for years, said Wells, adding he has watched them for his 13 years with the city, and observed as they started a slow, steady decline after an irrigation ditch by which they stood was filled in. Removing the trees is important to protect both people and property, he said.

One tree was cut down Nov. 11, but the other -- home to two hives, a rarity according to beekeepers -- still stands. The delay was prompted by a need to figure what to do to protect the hives, whose inhabitants have been 10-year residents of the neighborhood, said Tracy Perugini.

Perugini has lived in a house on King Circle for a decade and has watched the bees each summer. She was upset when she thought the cottonwood would be felled with the hives inside.

"Decolonization is a problem that is effecting our environment," she said. "It's very important to save (the hives) ...

"People need to understand the importance of not killing bees."

Bees have been dying off in droves around the world for years.

"Beekeepers first sounded the alarm about disappearing bees in 2006. Seemingly healthy bees were simply abandoning their hives en masse, never to return. Researchers call the mass disappearance Colony Collapse Disorder, and they estimate that nearly one-third of all honey bee colonies in the country have vanished," the National Resources Defense Council stated in an article titled "Vanishing Bees" (http://nrdc.org/wildlife/animals/bees.asp).

"Without bees to pollinate many of our favorite fruits and vegetables, the United States could lose $15 billion worth of crops," the NRDC stated.

"Bees are pollinators of almost everything we eat," said Broomfield's Wells. "I value bees and what they do for our environment and if at all possible, I wanted to try and remove them safely."

The first step toward removing them safely came with a call to the Highland Beekeeping Club's "swarm hotline." The club and others around the state remove swarms in the summer, and help relocate hives.

Jo Haugland of the Littleton-based Highland Beekeeping Club was the first contact, which led Wells to Eric Smith, a Westminster beekeeper who is going to take the bees -- hives and pieces of tree and all -- to a friend's farm on Lowell Boulevard.

Then began the planning of how to relocate the hives, which are about 20 feet and 35 feet high in the tree, according to Smith.

The answer is to move the hives while still safely inside the tree. The city's contractor, Arbortec Tree Service, Tuesday morning will cut the tree into portions and use a crane to lower the pieces of trunk containing the hives onto cushioned pallets on a trailer.

The cushions are important, Smith said, so the comb isn't broken and the queen not killed. The death of the queen could destroy the colony, he said.

The bees, dormant in the cold weather, will be sealed in with a cloth or screen. The trunks will be moved to Anthony Stano's organic farm on Lowell Boulevard, where the bees will get their "happily ever after" home, Smith said. When they become active again when the weather warms up, they will migrate to the hives Smith keeps on the property.

Arbortec, Wells said, is paying for the crane, an effort he appreciates.

Smith, too, appreciates everything being done to save the hives.

"I'm impressed by the city's commitment, everyone's commitment to serve these bees," he said. "Wow."

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